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"P.S. I Love You" (PG-13, 2 hrs., 6 min.)
A young widow grieves inconsolably for her husband and is guided through her emotional recovery by letters he secretly wrote on his deathbed in this excruciating film. With stars such as Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler (the recent star of "300" (R, 2006), appearing in flashback as her late love), romance-loving teens are likely to flock to "P.S. I Love You." Many will laugh, cry and have a great time, but nudge them gently to check out the best romantic grief movie ever, "Truly Madly Deeply" (PG, 1990), to see how such a tale can be told without cloying sentimentality. Holly (Swank), the sad heroine of "P.S. I Love You" (adapted from a 2004 novel by Cecelia Ahern), married gorgeous Irish musician Gerry (Butler) at age 19, to her mother's (Kathy Bates) dismay. She stayed crazy about him, despite arguments over when to have kids and money worries, until his untimely illness (we see none of that, by the way). Holly sinks into an agoraphobic funk and neither friends (Lisa Kudrow is the most fun as her eccentric single pal) nor the worshipful attention of her pub-owning mom's new bartender (Harry Connick Jr.) is enough to nudge Holly out of her apartment. Then the letters start arriving with instructions on how to push her back into life. The cast is fine, but the material is treacle.
The movie uses plenty of sexual innuendo including a male striptease down to boxer shorts, other gentle hints of sexual situations and one implied overnight tryst between an unwed couple. There is occasional profanity and crude sexual humor, backview nudity and drinking.
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"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (R, 1 hr., 57 min.)
With his ghastly pale face, black-shadowed eyes and that shock of white in his hair, Johnny Depp looks like a silent film actor as the mad, vengeance-driven Sweeney Todd. When he slits his victims' throats in director Tim Burton's eye-popping, witty adaptation of the legendary stage musical by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler, red blood gushes, spilling over Todd and the gorgeously stylized, color-drained rendering of 19th-century London. Teen film buffs 16 and older may cringe at the graphic style of the killings, but Burton clearly revels in providing the close-ups a stage play can't. The result is invigorating, if occasionally harrowing cinema. Older high-schoolers ought to find it easy to adjust to the mostly sung story and lush Sondheim score, performed in a style far less operatic than the stage show. Only the light-voiced Helena Bonham Carter, hilarious as Todd's landlady and partner in crime Mrs. Lovett (she cooks his victims in her meat pies), lets some of Sondheim's tangiest lyrics get lost. In addition to blood, the film contains sexual innuendo and the subtle implication of sexual slavery and child abuse. Adults drink and a street urchin (Ed Sanders) swills gin. There are creepy images of corpses, bones, body parts, and rats and roaches scuttling.
Todd, formerly Benjamin Barker, returns to London from 15 years of unfair imprisonment. He changes his name and plots his revenge against corrupt Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman), who stole Barker's young wife (Laura Michelle Kelly), and now holds their daughter (Jayne Wisener). Todd defeats a foppish barber (priceless Sacha Baron Cohen) in a shaving contest to attract customers on whom to "practice" before he gets to Turpin.
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BEYOND THE RATINGS GAME
-- OK FOR KIDS 6 AND OLDER:
"Alvin and the Chipmunks" (PG) -- A genial, occasionally quite funny update of the almost 50-year-old franchise, "Alvin and the Chipmunks" uses live-action and computer animation to tell a farcical tale that aims most of its wit, for once, at little kids and not grown-ups. Oft-rejected songwriter Dave Seville (Jason Lee) grabs a basket of muffins for consolation as he leaves a record company. Unbeknownst to him, three talking chipmunks -- mischievous Alvin (voice of Justin Long), studious Simon (Matthew Gray Gubler) and babyish Theodore (Jesse McCartney) leap from a Christmas tree into Dave's basket as he exits the lobby. When he finds them stealing food and conversing in his house, he freaks. Then he hears them sing. He writes them a hit and a sleazy record producer (David Cross) signs them. The PG reflects chipmunk poop and "smelly behind" gags and mild sexual innuendo among humans. OK for under-6s, too.
-- OK FOR KIDS 8 AND OLDER:
"Enchanted" (PG) -- Fantasy and reality bump heads in this clever romantic comedy, which droops a bit in its second half, but still has wit and whimsy enough to charm kids 8 and older. Adults will smile at its inspired musical send-ups of old Disney animated features. A lass in an animated fairy tale is off to marry her prince when his sorceress stepmom shoves her down a hole. Giselle (Amy Adams) bursts through a manhole in Times Square as a flesh-and-blood person in a live-action world, where a divorced lawyer (Patrick Dempsey) and his little daughter (Rachel Covey) rescue her. The prince (James Marsden) and sorceress (Susan Sarandon) soon follow. The film contains mild sexual innuendo, equally mild chipmunk toilet humor and shows rats and roaches swarming in a funny-creepy scene.
"Fred Claus" (PG) -- Vince Vaughn plays Santa's ne'er-do-well older sibling Fred-from-Chicago as a happy blend of smart aleck and good-guy in this amusing trifle, which bounces between cleverness and cliche. Fred gets arrested and his brother Nick, aka the real Santa (Paul Giamatti), sends bail and his sleigh, flying Fred to the North Pole for the Christmas rush. When an efficiency expert (Kevin Spacey) threatens to close Santa's workshop, Fred must help his bro. There is occasional semi-crude language and mildly suggestive humor, likely to go over heads younger than 10. The film of course has toilet humor and slapstick fights with no injuries. A boy (Bobb'e J. Thompson) Fred befriended in Chicago gets sent to an orphanage.
-- OK FOR KIDS 10 AND OLER:
"The Perfect Holiday" (PG) -- Gabrielle Union plays Nancy, a classy, divorced mother of three, in this cheesily contrived family comedy. Nancy's adorable daughter Emily (Khail Bryant) tells a department store Santa that her busy, dateless mommy wishes a nice man would just pay her a simple compliment with no quid pro quo. Emily's Santa happens to be a struggling songwriter named Benjamin (Morris Chestnut) who pays Nancy the compliment. The encounter grows into a relationship, complicated by interference from Nancy's oldest son (Malik Hammond) and her highly unlikely ex, a crass hip-hop star named J-Jizzy (Charlie Murphy). All this silliness is orchestrated by an angelic narrator (Queen Latifah), Mrs. Christmas, while her nemesis, Bah Humbug (Terrence Howard), tries to spoil it. There is mild sexual innuendo and some semi-crude language.
-- PG-13s OF VARYING INTENSITY:
"P.S. I Love You" (NEW) -- A young widow (Hilary Swank) grieves inconsolably for her husband (Gerard Butler in flashbacks) and is guided through her emotional recovery by a series of letters he secretly wrote on his deathbed in this excruciatingly cloying, dumbed-down film. Teens who love romantic stories will likely laugh, cry and enjoy it anyway, but please suggest they also check out "Truly Madly Deeply" (PG, 1990) to see how much better a tale of love and grief can be told. Lisa Kudrow is fun as an eccentric single pal. The film contains plenty of mildish sexual innuendo, a male striptease (down to boxer shorts), hints of marital sexual situations, an implied unwed overnight tryst, occasional profanity and crude sexual humor, backview nudity, and drinking.
"I Am Legend" -- Will Smith is terrific as Robert Neville, a military medical researcher who appears to be the lone immune survivor of a plague that has emptied Manhattan and the world of humanity in this well wrought -- if illogical -- sci-fi thriller (based on Richard Matheson's novel). Victims died or became rabid zombies who maraud at night. He and his beloved dog troll around a handsomely decimated Manhattan, gathering supplies, hunting deer, holing up for safety at night. There are upsetting flashbacks of the evacuation of Manhattan, the rabid faces of the infected slamming against car windows, and the implied deaths of Neville's wife and child. Gory scenes show him fighting off zombies with explosions, guns and hand-to-hand combat. There are bloody animal deaths. Too intense for middle-schoolers, the movie will speak existentially to high-schoolers.
"The Kite Runner" -- This memorable film (from Khaled Hosseini's novel) tells of childhood friendship and betrayal -- and adult redemption -- with stark beauty and deep feeling. Its stronger first half opens in 1970s Afghanistan, where a rich young boy, Amir (Zekiria Ebrahimi), and his child-servant, Hassan (the extraordinary Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada), are pals until a bully sexually assaults Hassan (the scene is not graphic, but director Marc Forster implies clearly what happens). Amir is afraid to help and cruelly shuns Hassan afterwards. As an adult in America, Amir (Khalid Abdalla) visits his homeland to make amends. The film hints strongly at sexual abuse of orphan boys under the Taliban. Violence includes gunplay, a beating, and a soldier's threat to rape a woman. We see the head of a butchered goat. Characters smoke and drink. Most dialogue is in Afghan languages with subtitles. High-schoolers with discerning taste.
"Juno" (LIMITED RELEASE) -- A smart 16-year-old named Juno (fab Ellen Page), with major attitude but a heart of gold, gets pregnant and decides to let an upscale couple (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner) adopt her child. But the grown-ups disappoint her when she needs them. This comedy from way off-center is a blast of fresh air visually, verbally, musically and its performances. There is one brief, mostly implied sexual situation, followed by a lot of teen discussion of sex and semigraphic sexual slang, toilet humor (pregnancy tests) and some profanity. The movie really isn't for middle-schoolers or even immature high-schoolers. Some parents may want to screen it first.
"The Golden Compass" -- A brave 12-year-old girl named Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards) battles authoritarian forces who abduct children and rob them of their souls in "The Golden Compass," based on the first book in Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" fantasy trilogy. The movie is gorgeous, mysterious, exciting and swift, though not easy to follow. Teens and many 10- to 12-years-old will probably love it, though devotees of the books may balk at the abrupt ending and other changes. They will rejoice in how beautifully the film imagines the animal spirits or "daemons" that embody people's souls. Lyra uses a golden compass, which always points towards the truth, on her epic journey to find a friend who's been abducted. Armored bears, humans and witches battle with swords, arrows and guns, but the fallen just disintegrate into sparks. A child is separated from his daemon in a way that seems very painful. Lyra's ally, the bear Iorek Byrnison (voice of Ian McKellen), is angry and threatening at first.
"This Christmas" -- A character-rich comedy-drama full of good actors, good cheer, and soap-opera cliches, this movie could draw lots of teens. Members of a large African-American family gather in the L.A. home of their mother (Loretta Devine) and her boyfriend (Delroy Lindo) for Christmas. The sparks soon fly among the many siblings (key sibs played by Idris Elba, Regina King, Sharon Leal, Columbus Short and singer Chris Brown; Mekhi Phifer plays a love interest). The sexual innuendo includes a vibrator joke, implied overnights among wed and unwed couples, an infidelity subplot, but no nudity or explicitness. There are muted fights -- one with a gun brandished -- mild profanity, smoking and drinking. OK for most teens.
-- R's:
"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (NEW) -- When Sweeney Todd (Johnny Depp in a powerful portrayal, looking like a silent movie madman) slits throats, red blood gushes. It spills over Todd and the gorgeous, color-drained rendering of 19th-century London. Director Tim Burton's witty, eye-popping adaptation of the legendary stage musical (by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler) is harrowing fun. Burton clearly revels in the tragicomic revenge fable and his cast does cinematic (rather than operatic) justice to the great score. Only Helena Bonham Carter, a riot as Mrs. Lovett, Todd's landlady and partner in crime (she bakes his victims into her meat pies), sometimes fails to sell Sondheim's lyrics. Sacha Baron Cohen is a hoot as a rival barber. Todd, just back from prison, is after the corrupt judge (Alan Rickman) who stole his wife (Laura Michelle Kelly), and keeps his daughter (Jayne Wisener) hostage. The movie contains sexual innuendo, subtle implications of sexual slavery and child abuse, a boy guzzling gin, and images of corpses, bones, body parts, rats and roaches. Film buffs 16 and older with strong stomachs.
"Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" (NEW) -- Uplifting Hollywood biopics and profane backstage documentaries about music legends get skewered down to the tiniest visual and verbal detail in this often hilarious, if hardly essential, satire. While its trailers may attract teen audiences, the movie is not for most under-17s. It earns its R and then some with male and female nudity, comic portrayal of drug abuse, insulting ethnic and racial stereotypes, graphic sexual situations, implied hotel room orgies, erotic dancing, crude sexual language and perpetual sexual innuendo, other strong profanity, comic violence that shows people accidentally cut in half, and a joke about suicide. John C. Reilly is perfect as Dewey, who rises from a tragic 1950s Alabama childhood to rock stardom, finding drug addiction, adultery, family torment and redemption along the way.
"The Savages" (NEW; LIMITED RELEASE) -- Thoughtful high-schoolers 16 and older who savor subtle, serious acting and writing will be pulled into this extraordinarily well observed dramatic comedy, infused with great humanity by writer-director Tamara Jenkins. Adult siblings Jon and Wendy Savage (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney) suddenly find themselves responsible for their ailing, estranged father (Philip Bosco), a parent they've never liked, who has dementia. Neither unproduced playwright Wendy, nor cerebral theater professor Jon, is prepared for the guilt, anger, sadness and love about to pierce their self-absorbed bubbles. Wendy abuses prescription drugs, sleeps with a married man, steals office supplies and habitually lies. The film includes brief, semiexplicit sexual situations, profanity, crude language, briefly graphic scenes about excreta, smoking and drinking.
"Atonement" (LIMITED RELEASE) -- A lavishly told tale of romance, war and personal tragedy, "Atonement" is visually stunning and acted with great subtlety -- though its sheer gorgeousness can dilute its emotional impact at times. Director Joe Wright's reverent adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel, set mostly in England before, during and after World War II, could entrance mature teens 16 and up. Keira Knightley and James McAvoy play secret lovers -- she an aristocrat, he a servant's son. Her 13-year-old sister (Saoirse Ronan), ignorant of sex, sees them making love and hurls accusations that have huge consequences. The film depicts graphic war wounds and includes an explicit sexual situation, partial nudity, crude, graphic sexual slang, drinking and smoking.
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